


Drowning

by serenesavagery (windrunnerdreamer)



Series: Belongingspren [4]
Category: Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Book 03: Oathbringer Spoilers, F/M, No Dialogue, Past, Romance, Soulmates, Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:27:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22224823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/windrunnerdreamer/pseuds/serenesavagery
Summary: She could lose herself to the nightmares. Lose her own mind to the enemy. Lose her sanity.But she could not lose her memories of him. No matter what.Whether it was the Petals of Cultivation, or her own love for him she knew not.But she could not forget Talenel.In that, her memory echoed a part of him- unyielding.
Relationships: Shalash/Talenel (Stormlight Archive)
Series: Belongingspren [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1567330
Comments: 6
Kudos: 16





	Drowning

Father had disapproved. Nalan had disapproved. Chana hadn't cared. Vedel had thought that their love would be eternal and true- Vedel always liked to muse on the finer aspects of love or any aspect of love. Pailiah had been the only one to think of it in normal terms. Batta was more focused on keeping up their oath. Kalak had not really cared either and Ishar had disapproved. 

Shalash had not thought of him until he proved himself to be their equal. 

He did- and her heart endeared to him in a way that was unexplained. It was her own doing however, and that was her first blessing from Mother Cultivation. 

It had not been easy. But he had taken it as a challenge and the glory he exuded upon completing his task...

Shalash couldn't deny his greatness. 

The shock in his eyes, when Cultivation's Blessing fell upon them both at first sight...

The rapid beating of her heart...

That feeling of no one being there in this land itself, apart from them two...

Those had been unforgettable. 

* * *

He was awkward, but gentle as the falling rain before a storm. He initially made the mistake of treating her as glass, but then saw for himself as she tricked and deceived the creatures of the void they had brought, slaughtering them with an an effortless grace- and in his wondering eyes on her, was a trickle of joy that left her aquiver.

His chuckles at her antics, the quiet noises of amusement he made...they were all more mellifluous than the sweetest song. 

The love she felt for him, knowing he always kept an eye out to save her, knowing that he would be there for her should she want it....was far too an ineffable an amount to be described. 

She recognized that her limerence for him was as foolish but as beautiful as the joy that was contained in his eyes, a joy that was created just for her, and wasn't that a more a beautiful form of art than that of what humans could create following every Desolation. 

Most unforgettable of all was his placing Cultivation's Petals around her head gently, as if it were a crown and she were a queen. The joy that followed could hold her together for nearly every Desolation that followed thereafter. 

Cultivation blessed their bond as abundantly as crops grew in the west, far off at home where the names changed with each epoch. And that was her only sliver of happiness in this doomed land. 

She loved him, as surely as he loved her. 

And Shalash would not give that up for all the beauty of life. 

* * *

She screamed at Father, at Nalan, at Batta and at Ishar. 

They could not do this. 

The Oathpact was not meant to be undertaken by one man alone. To do so would be damning. 

She would not damn him to an eternity of suffering for ungrateful Voidbringers. 

Father is calm, but broken. 

And Almighty above- weren't they all broken?

They could not do this, she screamed further, tears rolling down her cheeks, cheeks stained with the blood of Almighty knows which poor creature. 

They could not. 

They could not let her beloved suffer so. 

How could they? How could they let the true hero of them all suffer the pain of ten?

But it was decided, said Nalan with coldness and a lack of life in his eyes. 

Shalash was left at the battleground, tears rolling down her eyes as Jezrien departed to inform Kalak.

And they abandoned him. 

And Shalash was left weeping for an eternity. 

* * *

She should have been stronger- she thinks viciously as she hacks apart at every depiction of hers made. 

He had to hate her. If he ever was in his right mind. 

She had been weak to save Talenel from the suffering he was cursed to endure, is still enduring and would forever still endure until he broke. 

_Oh Taln..._ she thinks to herself every time she finds his face, however wrongly depicted or named. 

She remembered his hands, gently running down her body, hands that would hold her when she was weak, hands that would protect her from every calamity of this doomed land. 

His eyes, that never failed to drown her in their intensity. 

His voice, that never failed to calm her or fill her with love, a memory of everything good and true. 

The fact Cultivation still blesses her love for Taln every time she thinks of him makes her wonder if she's mocking her or pitying her, when she can think clearly. 

* * *

When she sees him, for the first time in millennia, he is a ragged and raving lunatic who trembles at sight and sound. 

Tears fall down her eyes at the sight, and she blames it on them all- they who brought the void and destroyed the one she loved dearly. 

* * *

He did not hate her. 

Shalash doesn't know if it's a part of his insanity, but she has to make him hate her. 

After all...

How could he _exist_? She had left him to suffer in Braize alone, and for such a long time and he did not hate her...

He did not. 

It did not make her love him, for surely, when he saw the truth- he would. 

The damning fact is that he would not, and that claws at her, much like Moelach had once done so. 

He held her as he had done so long ago, for a singular second- and she knows he has not forgotten. That he was in his mind, however brief. 

And she sobs quietly, quivering at the sight of Cultivation's Blessing that fell upon them both, as he pulled her back and asked her to follow him.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't even written drafts for this lmao, and I'm not sure if it's supposed to be this or the shot of Kaladin hiding his belongingspren from Adolin but I wanted to write so badly aaaa-
> 
> This is gonna be tough, eh.
> 
> EDIT
> 
> YES IT WAS TOUGH AND I HATE MYSELF FOR DOING THIS.


End file.
